Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

We spend a lot of time building gates and systems to protect ourselves from distraction of ADHD. But, what might we be losing at the expense of saying No? This week on the show, Pete talks about control and ADHD. Spinning off of the concept of Margin as discussed by Shawn Blanc and Richard Swenson before him, what does it mean for ADHD when our systems and processes that we use to protect ourselves and our focus cause us to run out of margin in our lives and run headlong into a broader world that doesn’t understand us?

Links & Notes

Thank you for supporting The ADHD Podcast on Patreon!

Giving up Control at Work — Shawn Blanc

Margin from The Focus Course — Shawn Blanc

Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives_ by Richard Swenson

There aren’t many practitioners writing about today’s topic. Unless, that is, you look up the collected works of Dr. Bill Dodson. Dr. Dodson is an award-winning board-certified psychiatrist and specialist in adult ADHD and his contributions to the study of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria bring him to the show today. According to Dr. Dodson, nearly all those living with ADHD live with some level of rejection sensitivity, and thanks to the poor training on the ADHD connections to the condition, patients are going misdiagnosed and mistreated as a result.

Today on the show, Dr. Dodson joins Nikki Kinzer and Pete Wright to discuss Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria and provide new language to frame a state those living with ADHD know all too well.

About Dr. William Dodson

Dr. Bill Dodson is a award-winning board-certified psychiatrist and specialist in adult ADHD. While Dr. Dodson has been on the faculties of Georgetown University and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center he is primarily a clinical practitioner who tries to combine evidence-based practice techniques with practice-based evidence.  In addition to being named a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and recipient of the national Maxwell J. Schleifer Award for Distinguished Service to Persons with Disabilities, Dr. Dodson is one of two experts from the US to the World Anti-Doping program for the development of guidelines for the use of ADHD stimulant medications in the world’s athletes.

Links & Notes

• Dr. William Dodson at Additudemag.com

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast

As we kick off our summer break, we’re re-releasing a few classic episodes that still hit home—like this one on email from way back in 2017. Yes, some of the tools we mention (hello, Evernote) have aged out of our workflows, but the core ideas about attention, overwhelm, and building ADHD-friendly systems are still spot-on. Think of this as a time capsule with a message that’s still relevant today. Enjoy the listen, and come say hi in the Discord while we’re on break!

Billions of us send hundreds of billions of email messages every single day. Email is bigger than any other social platform around the world and thanks to the explosion in mobile Internet, we’re doing more and more emailing every day in the palms of our hands. Is this how you want to live? Is your ADHD brain adopting to the always-open door to your life that is electronic mail? This week on the show, we’re talking about changes in lifestyle, behavior, and technology you can make to impact your relationship with email for the better!

Links & Notes

• Gmail
• Edison Mail
• Airmail
• Mailbird

• (00:00) - A Message from the Future Past!

We all know the moment when we realize we’ve said “yes” too many times. Maybe it’s a blinking cursor. Maybe it’s a half-warm cup of coffee gone cold. Maybe it’s your third attempt to open the same email. But in that moment, something tilts: the awareness that saying yes to one thing has meant saying no to something else… and no one told your brain.

This week on The ADHD Podcast, Pete and Nikki crack open the economic principle of opportunity cost—not in the language of Wall Street, but in the tender, messy vocabulary of ADHD. What happens when our neurological defaults make the unseen costs of our choices invisible? When our brains are wired to chase novelty, to dodge rejection, and to overestimate time like it’s a limitless currency?

Pete revisits the metaphor of the “red line”—a hard truth learned from a boss long ago, now a framework for managing finite energy with zero-based budgeting. Nikki unpacks how ADHD minds experience the psychic toll of every task: the emotional bandwidth, the recovery periods we never account for, the cost of starting something after we finish something else. They offer not only the language for what’s happening beneath the surface—but permission. Permission to stop measuring ourselves against neurotypical expectations. To say “I’m making space for this” instead of “I’m giving up on that.”

If you’ve ever felt the heavy guilt of unmade choices, or the strange sorrow that follows a hard-earned win, you’ll find resonance here. Because at the intersection of ADHD, opportunity, and peace, there’s a small sign that reads: You can stop lying to yourself now. You’re doing just fine.

Links & Resources:

• Download the Opportunity Cost Planning Worksheet
• Join the ADHD community on Discord: takecontroladhd.com/discord
• Support the Show on Patreon
• Dig into the podcast Shownotes Database

• (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

We tend to think of memory as a vault—something that, if built correctly, should always open on command. The vault metaphor is tidy, satisfying, and wrong. In truth, memory is more like a three-legged stool balanced precariously on a floor that shifts beneath us. For people with ADHD, that floor isn’t just shifting—it’s often crumbling. And still, we’re asked to sit perfectly still.

This week, we’re joined by Dr. Daniella Karidi—executive coach, cognitive scientist, and founder of ADHDtime—for a conversation that reframes what we know about memory. She maps its steps—encoding, storage, retrieval—and then shows us exactly where, and why, those steps falter in the ADHD brain. What emerges is a picture of fragility—of a system doing its best under conditions for which it was never optimized.

We explore working memory, the critical minute when new information is either transformed into long-term knowledge or simply lost to distraction. We talk about why prospective memory—remembering to do something in the future—is especially difficult for ADHDers, and how most of our strategies fail because they focus on what to remember, not where or when we’ll need to recall it.

But perhaps the most radical idea Daniella offers is this: Forgetting is not failure. It is human. And for ADHD brains, it’s not about being careless or lazy—it’s about a system built for immediacy, not for invisible timekeeping. The key is not to “try harder,” but to scaffold smarter. Memory isn’t a moral issue. It’s an engineering problem.

Daniella shows us how to work with our memory instead of against it, from post-its and memory palaces to understanding state dependence and the power of meaningful cues. This is a conversation for anyone who has ever walked into a room and forgotten why, missed a meeting they cared about, or been told—once again—that they “just need to focus.” If memory has ever felt like a betrayal, this episode is the beginning of forgiveness.

• (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

In this episode of Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast, Pete and Nikki sit down with Dr. Dara Abraham—board-certified psychiatrist, women’s mental health expert, and founder of Dr. Dara Psychiatry—to explore the complicated and under-discussed relationship between ADHD and hormones.

Dr. Dara walks us through the key hormonal transitions across the lifespan—puberty, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, and menopause—and how each stage uniquely disrupts ADHD symptoms and medication effectiveness. She shares why estrogen is your brain’s best friend, how hormonal shifts wreak havoc on dopamine regulation, and why women are so often dismissed when seeking help. From the science of hormone replacement therapy to practical tips for self-advocacy and lifestyle support, this episode is a must-listen for anyone navigating the double whammy of ADHD and hormonal change.

Whether you’re struggling with brain fog, sleep disruptions, or medication that suddenly stopped working—there’s help, there’s hope, and Dr. Dara is here to share it.

Links & Notes

• Adult ADHD Specialist - Dr. Dara's Comprehensive Psychiatry Care | Comprehensive Treatment
• Connect with Dr. Dara on LinkedIn
• Dig into the podcast Shownotes Database
• Join the ADHD Discord Community
• Become a Patron

• (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

When you live with ADHD, you might be used to the mental whirlwind — the dopamine chases, the deadline surges, the exhaustion that follows. But for many, there’s a deeper and more insidious battle happening in the background: chronic illness. This week, Pete and Nikki welcome clinical naturopath and passionate advocate Jules Galloway to unpack the tangled web between ADHD, adrenal fatigue, autoimmune conditions, and the gut-brain connection.

Drawing from her own experiences with late-diagnosed ADHD and years of working with neurodivergent clients, Jules explains how chronic stress and inflammation can alter the architecture of the brain, and how burnout isn’t just a buzzword — it’s often a physiological crisis. From cortisol testing and histamine intolerance to why so many ADHDers feel like they’re constantly “wired but tired,” this episode brings clarity and compassion to a deeply misunderstood intersection of mental and physical health.

Jules also shares practical, empowering strategies for healing — from stabilizing blood sugar with protein-rich meals to reducing inflammation through gut health and sustainable lifestyle changes. It’s a conversation full of insight, empathy, and real-world tools for anyone struggling to understand the full-body impact of living with ADHD.

Links & Notes

• Jules Galloway’s website: julesgalloway.com
• 🌿 Get 1 month FREE access to ADHD Naturally (no credit card required): julesgalloway.com/adhd-naturally-freebie
• Follow Jules on social: @julesgallowayhealth
• Join the Taking Control ADHD community on Discord: takecontroladhd.com/discord
• Support the Show on Patreon
• Dig into the podcast Shownotes Database

• (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

What happens to ADHD when the scaffolds of career and parenting fade, and we’re left navigating a world that’s quieter, slower… and far less structured?

This week on Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast, Pete and Nikki are joined by one of the most influential voices in ADHD research and advocacy: Dr. Kathleen Nadeau. An internationally recognized expert and the author of 14 books on ADHD, Kathleen is the founder and director of the Chesapeake Center—one of the largest private ADHD specialty clinics in the U.S. Her career has been defined by breaking new ground for underserved ADHD populations, and today she turns our attention to one of the most overlooked groups of all: older adults.

Drawing on extensive research—including interviews with more than 150 individuals for her groundbreaking book Still Distracted After All These Years: Help and Support for Older Adults with ADHD—Kathleen guides us through the realities of aging with ADHD. She brings nuance, humor, and urgency to topics like isolation, structure loss, hormonal shifts, executive dysfunction, and the ADHD tax that shows up in the fine print of Social Security forms and medical claims. We discuss how declining circadian rhythms and deep sleep disruption may connect ADHD to increased dementia risk, and why the U.S. is still lagging behind global standards in using hormone replacement therapy to support cognitive health in aging women with ADHD.

But this conversation isn’t about despair—it’s about reinvention, resilience, and the power of community. Kathleen shares powerful stories of support groups that thrive beyond professional guidance and offers practical strategies for maintaining purpose and mental clarity well into our later years.

If you or someone you love is navigating ADHD after 50, this is the episode that finally speaks to that experience—with candor, compassion, and hard-won insight.

Links & Notes

• Still Distracted After All These Years: Help and Support for Older Adults with ADHD by Dr. Kathleen Nadeau
• The End of Alzheimer’s by Dr. Dale Bredesen
• “The How and Why of Sleep” NIH Video Lecture
• The Chesapeake Center
• The Villages
• Support the Show on Patreon
• Dig into the podcast Shownotes Database

• (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

What if the relentless chase for productivity isn’t a sign of progress—but a trap?

This week on Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast, Pete and Nikki return to the idea they began exploring with Dr. Ari Tuckman: the Productivity Trap—a psychological cul-de-sac where effort doesn’t equal accomplishment, and perfectionism becomes performance. But this isn’t just about missed deadlines or overloaded to-do lists. It’s about identity. About shame. About what it means to be “enough” in a world that rarely says you are.

From a deceptively simple mantra—“You don’t have to be productive all the time”—springs a story of emotional reckoning. Pete recounts how Nikki’s offhand remark evolved into a viral merch moment, while Nikki shares coaching experiences that reveal the heartbreak (and humor) of managing ADHD in a culture obsessed with output. They dissect the nuance between urgent and important, spotlight how AI can support executive function, and confront the myth that productivity is linear.

This is not a conversation about how to get more done. It’s a conversation about why we believe we must.

Links & Notes

• You Don't Have to Be Productive All the Time
• Support the Show on Patreon
• Dig into the podcast Shownotes Database

• (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

It’s not that people with ADHD don’t want to be productive. It’s that they’re often trapped in a paradox: striving to do more, while silently blaming themselves for not doing enough. That tension—between internal ambition and external expectations—is the focus of this conversation with returning guest clinical psychologist Dr. Ari Tuckman.

In this episode, Ari joins Pete and Nikki to explore the deep psychology of productivity, the social pressure to “look busy,” and the subtle ways perfectionism becomes a form of avoidance. Along the way, they discuss the myth of the perfect planner, why your to-do list is lying to you, and what happens when you finally admit you just don’t want to do the thing. With humor, heart, and a healthy dose of hard-earned insight, Ari introduces lessons from his new book, The ADHD Productivity Manual, revealing how managing productivity starts not with apps or alarms—but with radical honesty.

Because the real challenge isn’t doing more—it’s knowing what matters enough to do at all.

Links & Notes

• The ADHD Productivity Manual by Ari Tuckman, Psy.D
• Support the Show on Patreon
• Dig into the podcast Shownotes Database

• (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast